John Radford Froines (; June 13, 1939 – July 13, 2022) was an American chemist and anti-war activist, noted as a member of the Chicago Seven, a group charged with involvement with the riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Froines, who held a Ph.D. in chemistry from Yale, was charged with interstate travel for purposes of inciting a riot and with making incendiary devices, but was acquitted. He later served as the Director of Toxic Substances at the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration and then director of UCLA’s Occupational Health Center. He also served as chair of the California Scientific Review Panel on Toxic Air Contaminants for nearly 30 years before resigning in 2013 amid controversy and claims of conflict of interest.
Early life and education Froines was born in Oakland, California, on June 13, 1939. His father, George, worked as a shipyard worker and was murdered when John was three years old; his mother, Katherine (Livingston), was a teacher who raised John and his younger brother Robert as a single parent after her husband's death. Froines enlisted in the Air National Guard after completing high school. He then received an associate degree at Contra Costa Community College. He studied chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in 1963. Froines subsequently undertook postgraduate studies at Yale University, obtaining a Master of Science in 1964 before being awarded a Doctor of Philosophy three years later. His graduate work was done in the laboratory of Dr. Kenneth Wiberg, Yale Professor Emeritus. He won a post-doctoral fellowship from the National Science Foundation to work in the laboratory of Nobel Prize-winning chemist, Dr. George Porter, at the Royal Institution of Great Britain in London from 1966 to 1968.
Activism and the Chicago Seven conspiracy trial While at Yale, Froines was active in a Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) organizing project in the Hill neighborhood, adjacent to downtown New Haven. Community organizing projects inspired by SDS, and in particular, its first president Tom Hayden, were launched by civil rights and anti-poverty activists in various cities such as Newark, Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, and Oakland. Just as civil rights organizations in the American South were organizing for voting rights and political power for Black Americans, a northern SDS-led movement supported peoples’ community organizations in urban areas to gain some control over policies that were affecting their lives, in particular the severely sub-standard housing and inadequate social welfare programs. Noted as a member of the Chicago Seven, Froines was indicted along with seven others by the U.S. Justice Department under President Nixon in March 1969 for their participation and leadership in events at the protest demonstrations during the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The two-count indictment cited “conspiracy to travel interstate to incite a riot,” and inciting a riot. After a lengthy trial that drew national media attention, two of the defendants, Froines and Lee Weiner, were acquitted of the charges against them; the others were found guilty on one count. The contempt of court findings, which included those against Froines, were rejected in their entirety after an appeal. According to Gary Libman at The Los Angeles Times, "Froines' courtroom antics were comparatively mild," and included telling jurors that one of the defendants, Black Panther leader Bobby Seale, had been sentenced to four years in prison for contempt while the jury was outside the courtroom. Seale had his case severed from the other defendants after the judge refused to acknowledge his right to have an attorney of his choosing, and had him gagged and bound in the courtroom in an effort to silence him. Upon appeals all convictions in the Chicago Conspiracy Trial (the “Chicago Seven”) were overturned, along with the contempt of court charges leveled by trial judge Julius Hoffman against all defendants. While still waiting for acquittal in the early 1970s, Froines joined the faculty at Goddard College in Vermont, where he taught chemistry. From 1970 to 1971, Froines and his wife Ann lived in New Haven, Connecticut, where both worked with the Black Panther Party Defense Committee in support of Bobby Seale and Ericka Huggins during their controversial trial for conspiracy to murder. That trial resulted in a hung jury and the freeing of both defendants. Froines was also involved with organizing the May 1971 antiwar demonstrations in Washington, D.C., a demonstration which resulted in the largest mass arrests in American history.
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
